My Wish
by carmen caracol
Summary: Black Jack x Adult!Pinoko. Warning: this fic is difficult. It's very graphic. It's soft and tender in places, and dark in others, gritty and maybe a little terrifying. But, hey, are you even familiar with the Black Jack series?
1. Gods, Magic and Mystery

**Disclaimer:** "Black Jack" is a Tezuka masterpiece.

**Author's Note:** Based on manga-verse (I haven't seen the anime). Writing Pinoko's baby-voice is challenging, I tried doing it the way Tezuka-san did.

* * *

Part I: Gods, Magic and Mystery

"Pinoko, how many times must I tell you? You won't grow anymore!"

She'd heard it so many times.

But she wouldn't give up finding a way. See, what her Dr. Black Jack wasn't taking into account was that mysteries existed beyond the medical field. Her practical doctor thought things could be determined by analyzing time and circumstance and tools. But Pinoko had been born of a miracle, and ¡Acchon Burike! she would grow miraculously as well!

Pinoko had heard all about ancient mysteries and miracles from that strange acupuncturist who had once come to the doctor's house, listened while Black Jack sulked and finally just asked the man what he wanted. He just wanted company, was all. He and Black Jack had sat in silence for a long time while Pinoko brought over jasmine tea. Then the acupuncturist began talking of miracles and mysteries and Buddha.

* * *

On their next trip, they went to Nepal. Pinoko ran away from the doctor and asked the people of the town where the nearest Buddhist temple was. She went. She sat and stared at the One. It sure was _boring_. But, there was something so very content about the Buddha. Something so accepting. Her mind cleared. She remembered what the acupuncturist had been mentioned. Something about... chi? Ah, yes. She suddenly... understood.

She suddenly knew!

"Fank you, Buddha!" she cried, waving at the gilded statue as the worshippers nearby chuckled.

Yes, all is one, in the end, all: her growth was stunted because her chi was wrong (at least she thought). Well, she'd just get that acupuncturist to work his needles on her...

She endured a storm of yelling when she arrived back at Black Jack's side. But, she took it in stride. After all, she was now going to grow big! After the doctor was finished on his patient, she approached the subject.

"Doctor, umm... that acupunchuwist sure looked like he needed some cushtomers..."

"Hm? Oh, Pinoko. He was dying and wanted to congratulate me on being able to cure the only patient he hadn't been able to in his whole life. He's on his death-bed."

"Acchon Burike..."

"Why?" Black Jack raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Oh... nuffing. But, I'm sure other acupunchuwists are just as good... Right?"

Black Jack shook his head.

"Acupuncturists are all a bunch of quacks."

"...Ugh."

* * *

While still in Nepal, Pinoko heard some children talking of a Hindu god named Vamana. He had been a dwarf who saved the world by tricking an evil demon. He'd grown giantesque when he needed to, in order to make three steps to claim earth back. Maybe Pinoko was the same way. Maybe she just needed to be presented with a dire need to grow big...

"Oh, Vamana!" she cried outside a temple to the wrong god, Rama. "Please, make me big! Not too big, you know. Jusht big enough, like a gwown-up! Pinoko needs to save Doctor's grouchy heart!"

"Kid, you're praying to the wrong god," said a passer-by. "And don't worry, you'll get big soon enough. Just eat your vegetables."

"Shtay out of people's business!" cried Pinoko, sticking her tongue out rudely.

This caused a big scandal because the passer-by just happened to be the head priest.

"Pinoko... I can't believe you're being so naughty. Why do you keep running away from me?" Black Jack said, dragging Pinoko away. He'd interfered just in time before people started causing a real ruckus about his little girl.

"Waaah, just leave me alone!"

* * *

Pinoko wasn't giving up hope just yet. Dr. Black Jack soon got a call to go to Mexico and she begged that he take her with him. Please! She crawled into her doctor's lap and cuddled the way she knew melted his heart.

"You have to promise to stay close to me," he murmured, stroking her back. It was rare for him to be so tender, Pinoko relaxed into the affection.

While in Guadalajara, Pinoko noticed everyone prayed to a beautiful, mantled lady and her child son. As soon as Black Jack commenced his operation, she ran outside and entered the first church she saw.

"Wow," she whispered. She called to the statue: "Oh, gweat lady and little child, please help me gwow an adult body!"

"Just what are you asking for?" asked a random little boy praying a rosary.

"Shh! I have to gwow big, and I'm asking all the gods of the world to help me," explained Pinoko to the boy as if he were an idiot. "I bet thish little god grew up to be vewy happy and got mawwied, and he should help Pinoko do that too."

"Actually," said the little boy, pointing to a crucifix, "he grew up to be scorned by all his friends and murdered like a criminal."

"Yeesh." Pinoko's hair stood on end as she looked at Jesus. "Never mind. You know somefing? I bet my husband would have been able to perform surgewy on those nashty wounds and save that god. He's a vewy famous doctor, you know."

"...Wait, husband?"

Ten minutes later, Pinoko returned to her Black Jack's side just as he finished, very forlorn.

* * *

She was just about to give up hope when the doctor was called to Morocco.

"And because you were good last time, you come be my assistant," said Black Jack, noting that Pinoko was very down lately.

"OK," she replied morosely.

Pinoko was very impressed with Morocco. After Black Jack's surgery, he took her to the markets of Fez and promised she could pick out anything she liked (given it wasn't huge). This cheered Pinoko up somewhat and she ran through the marketplace trying to decide what she could possibly get, and, if possible, how to persuade the doctor into getting her more than just one thing.

Then she ran across an abandoned bottle, littered in a corner, and was fascinated for its brilliant blue color. She picked it up.

Oh, oh! Could it be? Pinoko looked around again and caught the eye of a merchant who only winked at her. Huffing about privacy, she went around to a corner where no one could see and gently rubbed it.

Miraculously, a wisp of purple smoke released from the top and a stunning woman stood before Pinoko.

"Aren't you cute?" the woman said about her, smiling. "My masters are usually old and greedy."

"A genie!" cried Pinoko, shaking in glee. "Oh, please, will you gwant me a wish?"

"All right," said the beautiful genie. "But, you should know: all my wishes come with a price. I don't tell most people that, but you're just a little girl."

"Oh. Well..." Pinoko blushed, hesitant. "I can't gwow at all. My husb- I mean, my guardian saved me: I was a tewatoid cyshtoma in my twin sishter. He put me together and gave me a body, but it won't gwow bigger than thish... And I just want to be an adult." She hiccuped.

The genie considered.

"Well, that will come for a hefty price. For the ability to grow into a fully-formed adult: you must live a life never knowing true love!"

"Oh... oh, no..." Tears welled in Pinoko's child-eyes. She rubbed them away. "I- I could never!"

"Is that true?" asked the genie, raising a brow.

Pinoko hiccuped again and wiped away more tears. She shook her head.

"I will grant your wish without the price, then," said the beautiful genie, smiling. "You are wise and brave, little one, and very in-love, it seems."

"W- weally? You'll make Pinoko big?"

The genie nodded.

"¡Acchon Burike! Oh, fank you!" Pinoko ran and hugged the genie very tightly. She climbed into her arms and gave her a kiss while tears of happiness streamed down her eyes. "Oh, all my pwaying to the gods worked, oh, fank you!"

"Yes, but know this," warned the genie: "true love, though the greatest thing on earth, is also the most difficult thing on earth. No matter your age or height."

Later, when Pinoko found her dark doctor she endured his yelling and his reproach with a will of someone older. She seemed beyond anything but the happiness in her heart. Black Jack was struck by Pinoko's docility and showed her the little hand-crafted jewelry box he'd bought her. She kissed his cheek and let her little lips linger. Black Jack blushed in the purple-pink sunset and held his little girl close, whispering that he was glad she was safe.

* * *

******to be continued in part II**


	2. Organs, Experiments and Proposals

**Disclaimer:** "Black Jack" is a Tezuka masterpiece.

**Author's Note:** See end-notes!

* * *

Part II - Organs, Experiments and Proposals

The little girl went to bed next to her guardian, dressed in a big, long pajama, all ready to grow during the night. She was thinking thoughts too mature for her body. What she loved about Dr. Black Jack would become more fully developed in an adult's body. She knew enough about what attracts a woman to know what would probably happen. She'd fall for his voice, his scent, his aura, learn to appreciate more his stature and physique, begin yearning and urging the way her child's body now could never handle. While she was thrilled, she was very nervous.

What the genie had said swirled in Pinoko's mind: _Love is the most difficult thing on earth_.

"I love Doctor," she whispered to him.

Black Jack sighed and rubbed her back.

"Sleep."

Pinoko woke first. She fluttered her eyes open and sure enough, she was different. She was in a twenty-year-old body. With boobies! She touched herself all over, marveling. Her motion woke the doctor.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

He jumped out of bed and glared at Pinoko.

"Doctor, it's me! Pinoko!" Her lisp was gone.

The doctor ignored her and abandoned the bedroom, calling loudly, "Pinoko! _Pinoko_!" until he came back in the room and demanded in a deadly tone, "where is she?"

"Doctor, please! It's me! You made me from a cyst, I am your Pinoko all grown up! It was the genie in Morocco!"

Black Jack didn't blink. His mouth hung open as he stared at the woman in his bed.

"You followed us from Morocco, you bitch?"

Pinoko ignored the insult. She knew the doctor thought she was someone else.

"Please listen... I cook for you, I help you and also make things difficult. I write you love letters. That four-leaf clover in your desk is from me. I tell people I'm the wife!"

Black Jack's face was frozen in shock. He wasn't reacting.

"I am the little star next to that lonely one up in the sky, remember?" continued Pinoko, desperately. "I would travel alone to the coldest, most dangerous woods because I miss you. You once saved me from leukemia, though I'd secretly hoped for no cure so I could be placed in that older synthetic body for three days before I died, because you'd said you would marry me in that time, and I only wanted you to hold me once, ¡Acchon Burike!"

It was cinched for Black Jack. His breath hitched in emotion and he said, "Pinoko...? What did you do?"

"The genie in Fez granted Pinoko this wish."

Black Jack couldn't believe that was true. But what other explanation was there? Actually, the more he looked at Pinoko, the more he realized she was truly her matured body except with organic limbs versus synthetic.

"Good God..." He hesitantly stepped closer to the very different Pinoko.

"Is Doctor scared?" asked Pinoko. She started realizing that she herself was very scared. Her new body trembled.

"Terrified!" replied the doctor.

Pinoko's heart raced. "Yes?"

"There are mysteries beyond what the human mind can possibly imagine..." Black Jack's eyes drifted toward the window in thought. Then, shaking his head, he returned his gaze to the sad-looking, trembling Pinoko. "Never mind," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"All right, I think. Uhm... is Doctor mad at Pinoko?"

"Yes!"

Pinoko whined, "Why?"

"You went off and did this great huge thing without telling me, you could have gotten hurt or killed! As it is, I don't know if you're all right." He passed a hand over his face in agony. "Never, _ever_ go so far as to put your life at risk like that ever again, do you hear me?

"Waah!" Pinoko wailed, bursting out in tears.

"Shh, Pinoko." Black Jack approached her and sat down beside her. "I've got to examine you and make sure everything's OK. This could be a really strange sickness, just a coincidence."

"It's not!" cried Pinoko. "Pinoko's all big now, and I feel fine! I did this all for Doctor, and Doctor's a meanie-face! Oops..." She blushed and bit her lip.

"We've got to take precautions," said Black Jack, sighing. "You've been acting strange these last couple of weeks, so you've got to remember: did anybody give you anything strange to eat or drink?"

"No."

"Then tell me what happened with the so-called genie."

"Ah, that would ruin the mystery..."

"Pinoko!"

"OK, OK. Well, firstly, I listened in on Doctor's talk with the acupuncturist, and I started thinking maybe mystical things would help me grow big. I started praying to all sorts of gods, and then in Fez I saw a pretty blue glass bottle, remembered a legend about a genie, so I rubbed it and a beautiful lady came out."

Black Jack looked extremely skeptical.

"It's true!" continued Pinoko. "Then, I asked her to grant me the wish. At first, she said there was a price, that I had to live a life without love, but when I told her I wouldn't pay she said she'd grant me it anyway. Then she said some private stuff I don't want to share with Doctor..."

"Tell me."

"...I don't want to."

"You have to tell me everything!" he yelled.

"¡Acchon Burike! She said love was the greatest thing in the world, but also the hardest!"

Black Jack rubbed his eyes and muttered, "it could have been some type of powdered drug, but that doesn't explain the growth..."

Pinoko harrumphed and crossed her arms, noticing her breasts once again. Good, they were the perfect size.

"Well, until I figure this all out, I have to make sure your body's healthy," said Black Jack. "Take your clothes off, Pinoko. And nothing funny! You have to take this seriously."

"I wasn't going to do anyfing funny..." Pinoko mumbled.

"While you undress, I'm going to get my kit. I'll be right back, sweetheart."

As soon as Black Jack left the room, Pinoko excitedly undressed and admired her adult body. Wow, she was sexy. When the doctor returned with his suitcase of instruments, Pinoko saw a faint blush appear on his cheeks.

_Yes!_

He sat down and said very softly and seriously, "I'll be very gentle. Begin by opening your mouth."

Pinoko did so. Black Jack looked inside her mouth and saw everything normal. She had a full set of wisdom teeth, her tongue was clear, no sickness, and her throat was clear.

"Good. Now, open your eyes wide."

There was no redness on the inside of her eyelids. Black Jack shone lights in her pretty green eyes and made her follow them in all directions. Everything was normal.

"Very good."

He checked her ears: perfect hearing, completely clear. Her glands, they weren't swollen. She was very healthy, almost _perfectly_ healthy. Pinoko smiled, taken over with relief.

Now came the hard part.

"OK, lay down for me."

Unable to suppress a girly grin, Pinoko did as she was told. Looking up at the doctor, she felt in her body what she only imagined would happen, except it felt a thousand times better than she predicted. A warm feeling grew from her belly and crawled from there to her groin. Her breathing quickened.

"Easy," murmured Black Jack, taking her pulse. "Relax."

As she predicted the night before, the sound of his voice had a new effect on her: its depth intensified the warm, tingly feeling in her core. His touch made her body ache with desire. She suddenly wanted him to lean over her reclined body, to come closer, much closer...

"Now, I'm going to feel your organs," he said.

_Please do..._

His fingers grazed her belly, soft and ticklish at first, so much that she couldn't suppress a childish giggle and curled up instinctively. Peeking at the doctor she saw he was trying not to smile.

"C'mon, Pinoko, straighten out," he urged.

She lay prone again and Black Jack pressed his fingers into her stomach, feeling her intestines and everything else in there. Pinoko wished those same fingers would curl around her hips to hold her, but there was fat chance just yet.

"Everything seems completely normal," Black Jack commented, more to himself than Pinoko. "It all grew overnight. The whole thing seems so... incredible."

He didn't realize his fingers were grazing intimate circles on Pinoko's tummy until he looked into her eyes hooded in pleasure. He immediately retracted his hand and reached for his stethoscope. He put it on and brought the chest piece to the area between her breasts. Pinoko shuddered and gasped at how cold the chest piece felt.

"I'm sorry," said Black Jack, and warmed up the chest piece with his palm. "Here, this should be better."

He brought it back and Pinoko nodded. He listened to her heartbeat and realized it was racing, though it felt steady and strong enough.

"You have to relax for me," he insisted. "Come on, now, sit up, let me hear your lungs."

Pinoko did so and couldn't help gasp in surprise when Black Jack came close, practically chest-to-chest with her, to place one hand on her tummy and bring his arm around her to place the chest piece on her back. He turned his head to look off to the floor.

"Now, take a deep breath." He was so close. His scent overwhelming her, she felt the vibrations of his voice close to her ear, and she felt dizzy with arousal.

"I can't."

Black Jack huffed and tapped the chest piece against her back insistently, jolting her.

"Cooperate!"

Pinoko took the deepest breath she could.

"Good. Exhale. Again."

It forced her to breathe his scent in over and over, and she became more aware of his hand on her belly, steadying her, of his arms around her, his chest barely grazing hers, of his angular shoulders, and his face was so close that if she just turned her head she could kiss one of the scars on his cheek...

"Doctor," she breathed. "I feel light-headed. I have this... strange feeling."

"How so?" Black Jack's voice was wobbly, he knew that what Pinoko was experiencing was most likely sexual arousal.

"Mostly between my legs," she replied meekly. "It's like an ache, but it also feels good, I can't explain..."

Black Jack had to retreat. He backed away from Pinoko and took off his stethoscope, and only caught a glimpse of Pinoko's flushed cheeks, lustful gaze, and the way her body arched after him, mourning the loss of his proximity. He realized she was so completely new, so unbelievably inexperienced, that she had absolutely no control over what was happening in her body.

In a way, it was very good, it meant she was very healthy. But, he questioned how morally wrong it was to do this to poor Pinoko, the little girl he loved with all his heart, his own creation, his surrogate _daughter_ for goodness' sake! The 'wife' joking had always been just that, a joke: a joke he had permitted because he knew Pinoko could never grow, and so allowed her to indulge in out of pity and also because it bonded him to her in an endearing way.

But, now, Pinoko was a woman. A whole woman. A very beautiful woman, Black Jack thought and then punished his own mind. The whole situation was a strange Rubric's cube, as far as he was concerned, because, honestly, how could magic genies possibly be real? But how had Pinoko been able to adopt an organic body? One that perfectly resembled the child one she had except grown up?

Black Jack's feelings were incredibly conflicting, they were tearing him up. He mourned for his little girl, but he had to accept that she was an adult now, an adult lusting after him and for what reason, really? Because he was the first male she ever encountered once she had adult hormones and fully-developed sex organs? That was certainly the most sound, rational and completely viable explanation. But, something little and nagging in Black Jack's brain thought that it was because her mind had spent the last few years attracted to him that now her adult body was following complete suit.

Either way, it was completely wrong now to do what he'd originally planned as far as examining Pinoko, and that was to examine the state of her reproduction organs: a full gynecological exam, as it was that most obvious thing about her besides bones and muscles that had changed. Her brain, lungs, heart and intestines were all the same. Well, he thought, he'd just have to take her to a gynecologist.

"That's normal for a woman sometimes," he muttered stand-offishly, still averting his gaze. "Now, let me check your reflexes."

"Just when is it normal?" Pinoko replied.

The huskiness of her voice made Black Jack start. He looked straight into her eyes and saw that the hazy lust had turned into intense passion.

Uh, oh. His body reacted, immediately. He couldn't help it, he was human after all. Resistant to his mind's _strong_ objections, Black Jack felt his eyes grow soft and lustful as they, gently, of their own accord, slid over Pinoko's beautiful naked figure. He felt his throat go slightly dry and felt the pull in his abdomen signaling attraction and desire. The hormones sent signals to the brain: _pursue her, seduce her, romance her, she's healthy and beautiful, she clearly wants you, act now_, and he knew his own body was adjusting to make itself as attractive as possible. His eyes were sexy and his hips shifted to the side in a slightly provocative stance.

Evolution.

"Pinoko, what's most important now is your health," he rasped in a surprisingly deep voice, though his mind and his conscience had _just_ succeeded over his reproductive impulses (by a hair's breadth). He cleared his throat and did his best to shake off the momentary lust. "You have to control yourself, it's making your body react in ways you can't handle. Think about something disgusting. Think about curry that was sitting all day out in the sun!"

Pinoko blinked a few times and made a face.

"Good, shake yourself a little, rub your arms, and stop looking at me!"

"I'm sowwy..."

"It's all right, it's my fault, I wanted you to remove your clothes so I could check your... Nevermind. Here, put this nightgown back on, I'm going to examine your reflexes. Then you're going to take a nap... and I'm going to have a very strong drink."

"I don't want to take a nap!"

"C'mon." Black Jack picked up the nightgown and made Pinoko raise her arms so he could fit it on her. Once it was back on and Pinoko started sulking, he took a much-needed deep breath and sighed.

"OK." He checked all her reflexes, subtly marveling at how well-proportioned her limbs were. The sting of desire still lingered in him.

"Everything is normal, Pinoko. Now, sleep."

"But I'm not tired," whined Pinoko.

"I'll give you a sleeping pill."

"I hate those."

"Then, lay back down, rest, and meditate the way I've taught you. Relax."

Before Black Jack left the room, Pinoko called to him softly:

"Is Doctor happy?"

"Hm?"

"Are you happy I became my true age?" Pinoko asked.

"I'm happy you're healthy," Black Jack replied and shut the door.

For the next two hours, the doctor immersed himself in whiskey and tobacco. He became drenched in sweat and delusional ideas, his hands ice-cold from nerves. Nothing had affected him this much since he was a child and longed to murder his father. What on earth was he to do with Pinoko?

Black Jack heard soft moaning from his bedroom. Swaying with drink, pipe dangling from his lips, he stood and made his way to the room and opened the door. There lay Pinoko asleep on her belly, but... writhing.

Before Black Jack could fly over to see what was hurting her, Pinoko moaned, "...love you... so much, Doctor. Oohhh..."

The doctor froze in place, pipe falling out of his open mouth. Pinoko was apparently having erotic dreams. Of him! Her legs were lazily spread, hips sporadically rocking into the mattress, fists buried in the sheets, cheek against the pillow. Her complexion was flushed, her expression a mix of pleasure and longing, and she whined softly.

"Please..." he heard her huff, as she arched very slightly.

_Fuck_. There was no way to deny the erection pressing with painful urgency against his pants, none at all, but there _had to be a way_ to get rid of it. Shit, shit. How could he resist his feelings? This was _Pinoko_, for goodness' sake, and she might as well have still been in her child's body for all the inexperience, for all her vulnerability.

"God Almighty," Black Jack groaned, shoving his face into his hands and running fingers through his hair. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

"Pinoko," he called, voice hoarse. "Pinoko!"

She only groaned. He came close to her, using every ounce of will despite his inebriated state to _focus_, to remember his beloved little girl. He sat down and put his hand on Pinoko's back. She awoke with a start. She was breathing laboriously. She turned to him.

"Doctor!" She looked frightened.

"Shh, everything's OK."

Pinoko blushed a deep red and looked down at herself all disheveled.

"I'm feeling strange things," she admitted.

"We have to talk," said Black Jack. "Why don't you come into the kitchen with me and I'll make you tea?"

Tears streamed down poor Pinoko's cheeks. She had no idea these physical urges would be so strong and confusing, and that she'd find herself chained to her desire for Black Jack, who didn't seem like he'd be indulging in her. At the same time, her mind was so used to him as her guardian, her senses always knew him as her guide, protector, defender, her knight in shining... scalpels. She needed his comfort.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. I just want Doctor to hold me. Help me, Doctor!" She threw her arms open to him desperately.

"Pinoko-chan, I can't like this," said the doctor, covering his face in shame again, "it'll hurt and confuse you." His gaze met hers. He urged her: "Come, take me hand, I need to explain things to you. Don't worry, you're still my little girl."

Pinoko nodded, eyes averted, red from crying, and took Black Jack's hand.

"Good girl." He led her into the kitchen, sat her down, and set about getting her hot towels for the tension in her shoulders, and preparing a nice tea. While he wasn't looking, Pinoko mischievously stole a cigarette, lit it and tried inhaling. She started coughing maniacally, deeply regretting her decision.

"Blech!" She made a typical-Pinoko face. "This is disgusting! How do people enjoy this?"

"Why would you try that, you idiot?" scolded Black Jack.

"I thought now that I'm older that it would help my nerves," Pinoko retorted, pouting.

Black Jack shook his head and took the cigarette from her, smoking it himself.

"You're still the same," he mumbled as he went about preparing things.

"Of courshe I am!"

Soon enough, he had Pinoko sitting comfortably with towels and warm tea, though she still looked worried and forlorn.

"I never had this talk with you because I never imagined you'd need to know these things," explained Black Jack, sighing deeply, "but I need you to listen carefully: when a kid becomes a grown up, he or she develops a surge in hormones that lead to totally different feelings. For girls, as you know, their breasts grow and they start feeling tingly pleasurable feelings between their legs; they also begin to bleed from the vagina once a month for a few days."

"WHAT?"

"Calm down. That's because their bodies are getting ready to have babies. It happens to every woman, unless something goes wrong." Black Jack considered mentioning Megumi but decided very strongly against it. "Anyway, with boys, their voices become deeper, they get hair all over the place, and they also get tingly pleasurable feeling between their legs. Except, what happens when they get those feelings is that their penises become long and stiff, because a lot of blood rushes there. OK, Pinoko, this is going to sound very strange to you, but it's something that happens every day, and it's the only way to make a baby: usually, the normal thing is for the man's stiff penis to go inside the woman's vagina."

"HOW?"

"Don't blow out my eardrums! Yes. They rock back and forth together, the man and woman, and then some liquid shoots out of the man's penis and stays inside the woman and that's how a baby is formed inside her. Everyone who's a parent has done it."

Pinoko blanched completely. Black Jack took a long drag of his cigarette.

"It sounds very strange, but it's the most natural thing in the world. You get used to the idea. It's supposed to feel incredibly good. That's why there are so many babies being born every day! So, when a girl likes a boy and vice-versa, it's because they like the personality, but primarily it's because their body is longing to connect in that way to the other person."

"I... I never imagined... with Doctor..." Pinoko stumbled.

"Of course not!" Black Jack frowned. "Children can't feel those things for anyone, and adults don't feel those things for children. It's only for adults. It's for people who are married. Traditionally, the first time a man and woman do that is on the night of their wedding, and they keep doing it for the rest of their lives."

Pinoko blushed and looked around her ashamedly, as though there were witnesses around, waiting to judge her though she was innocent, naïve and pure.

"So..." She swallowed with difficulty. "So, when I told people I was Doctor's _wife_..."

"Obviously, people knew that you were just playing!" Black Jack shook his head. "And you were only thinking of the outward romance, Pinoko: you wanted me to fawn on you, pay you attention, give you affection, buy you things, and make you feel like you were my one special girl. Don't get me wrong, those are all parts of being married too! And because I never imagined you'd grow into adulthood, I let you be happy in that ignorance. I felt it was the least I could do for you, and besides, I liked fawning over you. But..." Black Jack averted his eyes for a moment and took a drag pensively. "But, being married is about following through on that tingly, achey, good feeling between the legs, and connecting. It's called having sex. And now that you're older..." He looked straight into her eyes, "you're bound to desire it. That explains what your body is going through. But, what's most important is this: sexuality is a private, personal thing for every individual. No one, _no one_ has the right to use you or manipulate you through those feelings. The body is sacred, you know that. _I_ raised you. I know you see, day-in and day-out, living by my side, how precious the human body is. There are people who want to take advantage of others. You must _fight_ against that type of hatred. You fight for your right to choose who you're intimate with, who you'd give such a private thing over to, and never to someone who doesn't love you, or can't love, or who's looking for physical pleasure rather than emotional commitment."

"Is Doctor afraid that he's one of those types of people?" asked Pinoko very seriously.

Black Jack was impressed with her.

"My father was," he replied simply.

"Does that mean you are too?" Pinoko's face was so innocent and open.

"I'm a broken person," Black Jack replied quietly. Pinoko's sadness was the most horrible thing he could see, and right then she looked _so_ sad.

"Do you believe Pinoko loves you?" Pinoko whispered.

"I do," replied the doctor. He hadn't forgotten what she told him about the genie.

He reached over and took one of Pinoko's lovely hands in his scarred ones, gazing at it and stroking it softly.

"Do you love Pinoko, Doctor?" asked Pinoko.

Tears formed in Black Jack's eyes.

"What do you think, Pinoko-chan?" he breathed.

He looked up into shining green eyes.

"I can't offer you a secure life, you know that," he said. "Looks have never impressed me, but they impress others, and you're beautiful. You're beautiful inside too, and you could choose from any man in the world. I'm an outlaw. Scarred inside and out. Society shuns me. Though, for you, the soul that brings me joy every day, though too often I scold you and deny you indulgences: I would give everything I have. If you became my wife, I'd continue loving you the way I do, try harder to make you happy, and I'd share with you... my intimacy, and my promise that I would never share it with any other woman. Only _you_. But, Pinoko..." He squeezed her hand. His eyes were worried the way Pinoko knew them to be during major internal conflicts. "It is your life, it's your choice, and I can only offer you everything I have but I could never force you. I'm begging you to consider it. This is all happening quickly, but that's just how things go. I couldn't live knowing that you're unhappy, that you wish you were with someone else. You have to give this time and a lot of thought. Please."

Black Jack knew asking Pinoko to give things _time_ and _tho__ught_ was pretty useless, but he tried anyway, smiling weakly.

Tears were streaming down Pinoko's cheeks until she sobbed into her hands, "Doctor loves Pinoko! Pinoko never thought she'd hear such things!"

"Of course I love you," Black Jack said, and it was so soft he might not have even said it all.

"Thank you," said Pinoko. She looked into the doctor's eyes and Black Jack knew her answer was yes.

Black Jack sighed. He opened his arms. She crawled into them.

"Kiss me once, for now, _please_?" Pinoko whispered.

"What a morning," Black Jack muttered with a lopsided grin before tilting Pinoko's jaw and gently pressing lips against hers. When the breathless kiss ended, Pinoko swooned, coyly turning her head to hide her bliss.

Then, excitedly, she jumped out from her fiancé's arms and said: "Breakfast! Has Doctor had it yet?"

Black Jack shook his head, dizzy with love in spite of himself.

"Well! What would you like?" Pinoko slipped on her apron, which was way too small on her at this point. She walked to the fridge to see it was fully stocked. "Anything Doctor wishes, Pinoko will provide!"

Black Jack bit his lip.

"I don't doubt it," he said, more huskily than he'd intended. "But, for now: _ochazuke_!"

* * *

**to be continued in part iii**

end-notes:

*I love in the manga that Black Jack always asks for tea on rice. Translated, he's either asking for genmaicha, which is green tea with little toasted brown rice floating in it, or ochazuke (which is what I've had him ask in this story) which is a popular "comfort food" in Japan, just rice cooked in green tea with some snacky crunchy toppings.

*Hope you enjoyed reading! hope they're in character (I did my best to keep it in the spirit of the manga, but I maay have made BJ a little too... mushy? I can't tell, he's a very complex character).

* I got some of the sentiments of the proposal from the chapter "SL Called Life," it was the last chapter Tezuka ever wrote for Black Jack (even though it appears in volume 11 of 17 in the series I read).

*Ok, so you can leave it off here if you like, but I'm planning a steamy rated-M part 3, so that'll be up for your discretion! it'll come soon.

p.s. I listened on-loop to justin bieber's "memphis feat. big sean & diplo" while writing this chapter... and now, subconsciously now I can't hear the song without picturing BJ getting drunk and suffering over Pinoko. very unfitting lol but hilarious at the same time

haha, and describing "birds and bees" was funny to write :X but he had to, you know?


	3. Pinoko Love Story

**disclaimer:** don't own black jack or pinoko, they belong to Tesuka-san!

**author's note:** this chapter now features explicit smut- and I swear Pinoko is not going back to being 5, she's staying 20!

* * *

"Acchon Burike..." Pinoko mumbled as she ripped yet another stocking, sitting on her bed. How did women on TV make it look so easy, slipping on stockings, rolling them seductively up the leg and attaching them to garter strings? In real-life, it was proving _most_ difficult and not at all seductive. But, Pinoko was trying! ...Trying while she ripped holes in the sheer material.

She and Black Jack were getting married in a month's time, after which they'd go on honeymoon to Paris. It had been a few weeks since the morning she woke up as a beautiful twenty-year-old and got engaged to the doctor, and she practiced every day getting used to her newly-adult body. Her fiancé wasn't outwardly any different, continuing day-to-day his Byronic life, in the study or in the operating room of some hospital or getting into trouble: distant but caring, tortured yet certain of his ethics. Brilliant in so many intricate ways. That was Doctor.

Pinoko sighed in pleasure. Just thinking about him gave her butterflies. She wanted to get all the adult-things right, to impress him. With her now, he was being extra tender.

Already, life had changed so much. First, Black Jack gave her money to buy herself wardrobe and accessories and makeup and beauty-supplies. She was still getting used to little things: wearing a bra, shaving her legs, plucking her eyebrows, putting on lipstick. A week after her morph she experienced her first menses, which was tremendously scary, and required a lot of Black Jack instructing and explaining and insisting that it was normal while Pinoko cried and came close to cursing adulthood.

Mostly, she noticed how much stronger her physical senses were, being an adult- she was learning very quickly how to read and interpret complex ideas. She had a better sense how to control her emotions and think things through. She could stay awake much longer than before. Her sense of taste improved and she was able to put together much tastier dishes.

Her laugh was low and rich, her hips swayed when she walked. She was all woman, and it was great, even if at times really complicated and difficult too. Best of all, she was enjoying how wonderful it felt to be the object of her fiancé's affections, how natural it felt to flirt with Black Jack now that they were on equal physical-stages and have him flirt back, consciously or not, and dote on her in little ways that seduced and committed her. Pinoko couldn't _wait_ till their wedding night. Admittedly, she was very nervous. But, something inside made her feel that doing that strange thing, as Doctor had said, was the most natural thing in the world. Though she was still getting used to the idea, she believed him when he'd said it would feel good. The urges she had for him felt good, though they were often difficult to calm.

She fell back on to the bed, arms above her, and sighed. Yes, they were very difficult. Slowly, achingly... she lifted her calf into the air... She let her fingers skim gently up her naked thigh... under her knee, and grip the edge of the stubborn stocking. She brought it down as she brought up her whole leg. _Yes_, it worked. Then, sheer, luxurious silk hugging her thigh, she brought garter string and edge together.

No rips.

"I did it," she breathed, grinning indulgently. She lay prone.

_I did it, Doctor. Now... help me...?_

That warm dizziness was back, that feeling. It wasn't unpleasant, yet it smoldered. Deep inside, driving her insane. Making her act strange, making her bold.

"...Doctor?" she moaned.

"Mm?" she heard back.

"Will you help Pino- I mean, me? Please?"

She was trying to stop speaking in the third-person. Black Jack said he didn't mind either way. He also whispered that once they were married, she could call him his real name, Kuro'o, but only when in private.

Black Jack's slender form appeared in the door.

"What's wrong, Pinoko-chan?" He tried looking over her tousled form with as much neutrality as possible, but she caught the tiny spark behind his eyes. Was it cruel to torture him? Perhaps.

"Can Doctor help me take the stocking off?"

Black Jack glared incredulously.

"I don't want it to rip!" Pinoko explained, fluttering her lashes.

"No," said Black Jack flatly. He pointed to the other stocking. "Put the other one on perfectly then remove it perfectly, and then I'll remove the original one."

"It's going to rip!"

"It will, if you believe it will. Focus. The ones you've ripped are taking up space in the bathroom. You've got to stitch every one back up, I'm not giving you more money to buy new ones."

"Waaah!" Pinoko wept dramatically. But, sniffling, she took the other stocking and began, very carefully, putting it on.

"Doctor can't possibly know how difficult this is," she complained, meticulously stretching the material _just so_. She lifted her bare leg. "It's the same as performing surgery!"

"We'll see."

Once again, Pinoko was able to get the stocking up to her thigh, no rips in sight, and gently, she tied stocking and garter together.

"Now I've got to take it off. Acchon Burike..."

"Or you can admire them while they're on," suggested Black Jack.

"You're right." Pinoko took a good look at how sexy she looked. She pushed herself up to her knees and admired her legs. Then she realized she was in her underwear and garter belt in front of Black Jack. She looked up to see him looking away, a faint blush tinting his cheek.

"OK, now I'm going to be extra careful taking this one off... Look, Doctor."

Pinoko lay back and rolled the stocking down and off. It was much easier to remove stockings than it was to put them on, and Pinoko thanked her gods because now Black Jack had to keep his end of the bargain.

Sure enough, he appeared looming over her, his grin part arrogance part affection.

"What's the trick, then?" he asked.

Then he ran slim, warm fingers under her thigh and Pinoko forgot how to speak.

"Hm?" he pressed.

"Uh... I... I don't-"

"You'd better tell me," he unhooked the stocking from the garter, "or you may lose this one."

"...You have to... be gentle... and slow."

His other hand came around the same thigh and Pinoko's breath caught. With both hands, very gently, he rolled the material and started pulling it down toward him.

"Like this?" he whispered.

Carefully, he rolled the material till it reached Pinoko's knee.

"Now what?"

"Don't tease me," Pinoko whispered, winking as she tried hiding her red cheeks.

"You think I'm teasing?" Black Jack said, eyebrow raised. "I'm only a surgeon, I could easily botch this up."

"I trust Doctor's skills," said Pinoko. She closed her eyes.

"OK, stay very still," said Black Jack. Slowly, excruciatingly, he rolled the stocking away from her knee.

Pinoko sighed, eyes still closed, and put her tongue between her teeth in a grin of pleasure.

Of its own accord, by Black Jack's subtle urging, her calf rose up in the air. Then, in one sweeping movement, the doctor peeled off the perfectly-kept stocking. Pinoko opened her eyes and caught his burning gaze. He turned to the leg he was still holding, and ghosted a kiss onto it. Unable to control herself, Pinoko whined in want.

Black Jack gently placed her leg back on the bed.

"We did it. Good girl."

Closing her eyes as she endured the burning blush on her cheeks, Pinoko whispered, "thank you, Doctor."

He left her room.

As soon as he was gone Pinoko sighed and ran hands through her hair. She let her hands roam to where Black Jack's had been moments before... and she could feel the ghost of his touch, the warmth, and felt the tingling that ran through her body. She pulled out from under her bed a pack of filtered cigarettes, which she had bought secretly. She lit one, indulging in the feeling of smoke in her lungs and nicotine in her veins, as the only way she knew to satiate the _craving_ she felt for Doctor.

Meanwhile, Black Jack was in the bathroom dousing himself in freezing water.

* * *

Everyone at the wedding, which was held at the Meiji Shrine in shinto-tradition (because Pinoko had wept, wailed and begged for Doctor to arrange it that way until, gnashing his teeth, he finally did) was curious about Dr. Black Jack's mysterious bride. Few remembered that he had had for years now a little-girl assistant, really a twenty-year-old teratoid cystoma, named "Pinoko" (the same name as the bride) who was always either helping in the background of an operation or gripping tight the ends of his cloak most times he traveled; those few were prudent individuals who weren't saying anything, merely smiling and going along with the strange circumstances of the wedding.

It became obvious that they were close, that they must have been close for a long time, that this was no new relationship- the way Pinoko wept during the ceremony and looked at Black Jack with adoring eyes, and the tender way he wiped her tears and whispered comforts so intimately- no one had ever seen the cold, greedy Doctor Black Jack be so rawly loving, no one knew he'd had it in him.

Yet, still, people never imagined it was the same strange little girl who'd been living with him for two years. They murmured and whispered about this beautiful, young European-looking woman, and gossiped about how on earth she would have agreed to marry the aloof surgeon. Though many people were happy for him, those same many were also very jealous. Many women present, even Megumi Kisaragi, were a little heartbroken to see the doctor finally snagged away. Many other doctors wondered why they couldn't land a wife this gorgeous.

By the reception, Pinoko was too thrilled to care about any negative buzz, too delighted that finally, now, she truly was "the wife!" as she'd been calling herself ever since she could speak. That this was their wedding (!) and that she was dressed up so elegantly, and that people, young and old, especially those who'd been patients of Doctor and also the sons and daughters of all the other doctors and politicians, were paying her attention and making her feel like an elegant socialite. People went on to her about her beauty and also about the genius of her husband. Pinoko did her best dodging questions about her past and her origins, but, it was difficult.

Meanwhile, Black Jack, with a scowl, endured the drunkenness of many of the men, some of whom kept clapping his back and winking when Pinoko was mentioned. But, mostly, he was accosted by many kind former patients and listened to all their stories about recovery, etc. and how much the Doctor had changed their lives for the better. It was a nice stroke to the ego, as Black Jack was more-than-used-to criticism and disdain, but his heart was really only pondering Pinoko.

...Until Megumi Kisaragi came to his side and Black Jack sighed in his head and wondered what Pinoko had been _thinking_ in sending her an invitation, as this could prove awkward and painful for both him and her. But, he realized she must have worked hard to be able to come, as her job as a ship's doctor was so grueling, and appreciated the effort. A little piece of him would always love the woman he'd saved yet stripped of all feminine organs, leaving her masculine and their romantic bond rendered torn.

They bowed respectfully to one another.

"Congratulations, I'm very happy for you and Pinoko, Dr. Black Jack," Megumi said, smiling.

Black Jack nodded, "thank you. I'm very grateful you came, Megumi-sama." He figured it was most respectful to use the intimacy of a first-name basis with her. He had, after all, at one time sworn their kiss was eternal. "I imagine it must have been difficult to get time off and travel here."

"I wouldn't miss this for anything. I'm very glad to see you looking happy."

"I look happy?"

Megumi laughed. "Yes, and I have to say: it suits you."

Black Jack frowned and offered Megumi a glass of champagne.

"How did you do it, Doctor?" Megumi asked. "How did you make her so seamless? I would never think her body isn't real."

"It _is_ real," said Black Jack, swigging back a whiskey of his own, "I had nothing to do with it."

"How could that be!?"

"I'm just as puzzled. But I didn't lay a finger on her, she came up with it all by herself. That's a real body she grew. She woke up one day like this. It was a medical miracle I still can't figure out."

"...But that's..." Megumi covered her open mouth in amazement. "You mean to say the little girl I met found a way to grow an adult body?"

Black Jack nodded and lit his pipe.

Megumi smiled. "She is truly worthy of you, if I may say, Kuro'o-sama."

Black Jack grinned very sincerely. "That means a great deal to me."

Just then, Pinoko flurried over. When Black Jack saw that she'd spotted him and Megumi talking, he prepared for the worst, expecting Pinoko to cause a scene. Instead, Pinoko merely threw her arms around Megumi, causing the latter's glasses to askew.

"Oh, Kisaragi-sama, I'm so happy you could come to our wedding, fank you!" Pinoko gripped her hands and looked as though she were about to cry in gratitude. Admittedly, she was a little on the tipsy side, which explained her reversion to her old lisp.

"It was my pleasure." Megumi adjusted her glasses. "You look beautiful, Pinoko-chan. Congratulations to you both."

Pinoko, still childish in many ways, pirouetted in place to show off her beautiful gown. But, this made her tipsiness worse and she stumbled into Megumi's arms. Megumi helped her straighten up.

"Wow, you're so tender, Kisaragi-sama," Pinoko said, hiccuping, "you've got a touch as gentle as a woman's. Hm, you know," she turned to a blanched, open-mouthed Black Jack, "Doctor, you should let me play matchmaker for Kisaragi-sama and help him find a pwetty girlfriend! What do you say?" Black Jack merely brooded, and Pinoko continued speaking to Megumi, "He'll say no, but you just leave it to me. I'm the wife! Anyway, isn't it wonderful I have a body now that matches me?"

"Very." Megumi and Black Jack exchanged a glance of understanding: Pinoko still didn't know Megumi was a woman, but still believed she was the "brother" of an ex-girlfriend of Black Jack's. "Really, Pinoko-chan, I think you outsmarted the Doctor on that one," Megumi continued, winking.

Pinoko hiccuped. "That's right."

"Pinoko, how much champagne have you had?" scolded Black Jack.

"Just as much as that time Doctor said he wouldn't save that _other_ teratoid cyshtoma!" Hiccup. "The boy one. And then you tried to! But Pinoko fell asleep while guarding the op..." Hiccup, "so the other meanie surgeons came in and made you kill him and put the parts in that... gooey stuff... culture medium." Hic. "Dr. Kiriko!" she suddenly exclaimed, still in the arms of Megumi. "Fank you for coming to my and the Doctor's wedding!"

And there stood Dr. Kiriko, a drink in hand, a sardonic grin on his gaunt face as he registered the scene before him.

"To the Doctor, Pinoko-chan, who, drunk one night and wanting really cute company, saved yet another life and graced the world with your charming presence!" Dr. Kiriko raised his glass to Pinoko and she raised hers back.

Black Jack frowned. This was turning out to be far too long of a night.

* * *

"Pinoko... Shh... Pinoko. Wake up."

Black Jack shook his new wife awake. Childishly, she moaned protest and curled deeper against his shoulder.

"You'll be furious I didn't wake you..." warned Black Jack, "we're overlooking Paris. There's the Eiffel Tower."

Pinoko jolted awake and pressed herself against the airplane window.

"Oh, Doctor!" she exclaimed, looking out at sunset springtime-Paris. "It's so wonderful! Oh, I can just imagine what it'll be like, strolling the streets of Montmartre, crossing the bridges of the Seine, smoking in cafés, going to the theatre, ooh, kissing in the rain in the Tuileries gardens!"

"How do you know so much about Paris?"

Pinoko turned to Black Jack. "I read about it in your library. Oh, and in Vogue-Japan Magazine. I ordered a subsciption!"

"Cancel it immediately."

"Why?!"

"I'm not letting editors know where I live and what my wife reads. You can buy the issues in the store."

Pinoko stuck her bottom lip out.

"Meanie-Doctor."

They landed. Pinoko, pink with pleasure, arranged her little _cloche_ hat on her head and put on her lace gloves, with the grace and elegance of a lady. She looked perfect. Black Jack's heart tripped over itself a little. Pinoko saw him hiding a smile, and kissed him on the cheek, then they unboarded the plane.

It was a pink and purple dusk in Paris, rainclouds having cleared only an hour before. The streets were still slick and dewy, and the air had that distinct smell of fresh bread. Everyone waiting for a taxi at the airport guessed the pair were on their honeymoon. Pinoko was all a twitter, a little punchy from over-exhaustion (14 hours on a plane after a long wedding was a lot for anybody, and she had a brand-new body she was getting used to). Black Jack, always _cautious_, always reserved and trying not to draw attention to himself, was finding it difficult to deal with people eyeing not only the pretty Pinoko but the Louis Vuitton suitcase she was carrying. Pinoko had insisted on this ridiculously expensive, flashy brand for reasons Black Jack didn't agree with at all. The idea was not to let people know they could afford luxury. But he couldn't refuse her anymore, he was too in-love. He sighed.

In the taxi to the hotel, he watched his Pinoko gaze out the window blissfully, listened as she pointed out the places she knew, and answered all her questions. He'd been to Paris many, many times, but it never seemed romantic before. Not the way people raved about. Until now, as he held Pinoko in his arms. She was beginning to get sleepy again. But, when Black Jack thought she'd doze again, as the taxi wound around streets, she didn't. Instead, lazily, she reached up and placed the most beautiful kiss against his lips. Normally, Black Jack would have pushed her away and reproached her for public intimacy, but now... he found himself ensared. Only two months ago, Pinoko was the aching thorn in his heavy heart, an anomoly he knew he loved more than anyone but didn't know what to do with. She was the reminder that he had a penchant for playing God. He was always treating her like a child despite all her mournful tears that he treat her like the adult she was, and ignored her pleas to give her a body that matched her mind. He'd known he loved her, most deeply, but it had been turning into a strange psychologically-driven pedophilia, because they both knew the love was different than father-daughter and beyond friendship. Pinoko's consciousness really _had_ been eighteen-years old when Black Jack had put her in a five-year-old's body. She was an adult this whole time. Now she had a body congruent with her soul. Gathering her in his arms so as to deepen their desperate kissing, his last cognizant thought was to _hope _that his beloved was finally feeling some of the happiness she so deserved. They didn't stop till they got to the hotel, by which time they were breathless and only dimly aware of the surroundings, dizzy, entranced, completely absorbed in one another. Thoughts and feelings went unsaid, spoken only by the ardency of their caresses.

"Come," he breathed, kissing her wrist. "Let's go up to bed."

"Yes."

The taxi driver chuckled when Black Jack handed over the francs. "I was getting horny seeing you both through the rear-view mirror," he muttered in French, with a grin, to Black Jack.

"Good, now I know we're in France," replied Black Jack in equally-perfect French, scowling. "How did you know I could understand you?"

"You're the famous Docteur Black Jack! You're a legendary figure. I knew you'd have to know French."

Black Jack sighed.

"Well, then I'll ask you to stay tactful about my stay here: mostly through your word as an honorable gentleman, and a little bit through this." He handed the driver 200 extra francs. "But it'll be mostly through that, won't it?"

The taxi driver chuckled. "Merci, Monsieur. Your secrets are safe." He drove away.

"All the people I despise will know I'm here by tomorrow," muttered Black Jack grumpily.

Pinoko clung to him as they entered the beautiful luxury hotel, exhausted yet still aroused by the doctor's kisses, excited yet overwhelmed by how different everything was. She was sleepy as she and Black Jack were escorted to their balcony suite, as she lazily used the bathroom and washed up a little, and when the bellhops finally left, she fell into her husband's arms and nodded off.

"Sh, c'mon Pinoko you've got to get out of your clothes," urged Black Jack. "Wake up."

"You undress me! Please?"

Black Jack sighed frustratingly. He undressed her and lay her on the bed while he went and washed his hands and went rummaging in the luggage for her her nightgown. By the time he came back to her she was snoozing again. He woke her and she cooperated as he undressed her and put on her silk negligé. She giggled dazedly as he removed her stockings and slid her garter belt off, awakened with the memories of that day a few weeks before when they almost... when Black Jack slipped off her stocking and she went crazy with desire.

"I love you... Kuro'o."

Black Jack smiled and dropped a kiss onto her thigh. "Keep saying that and I won't be able to hold back making love to you."

"That sounds beautiful." Pinoko's eyes slid shut again and she yawned softly, carding a hand through her husband's silky hair. "Is that sex?"

"It's a pretty way of saying it."

"I want to do that, Doctor," Pinoko moaned, trying to open her sleepy eyes. She pulled Black Jack up to her. "Pinoko is awake, don't worry... Pinoko is..."

Black Jack supported himself on his forearms, and kissed her sweetly.

"No, we're both exhausted. You wouldn't be able to stay awake through it."

"Has Doctor ever...? No, never mind." Pinoko opened her eyes and they were tinged with a hint of fear this time. "I'd rather not know if you've done it before... with another woman. I couldn't bear it."

Black Jack shook his head sleepily.

"Everyone thinks I have, with women all over the world," he said, voice low and raspy, "but the truth is I never have."

"Becaushe you didn't want to, or becaushe you couldn't for shome weason?" Pinoko blinked slowly, trying to stay awake. She was reverting back to her babyish talking.

"A bit of both." Black Jack couldn't help himself and lovingly pushed bangs out of her face the way he used to when she was little. "My mother's example taught me to respect women. My father's example taught me that meaningless sex blinds men and turns them into something worse than animals. Heh, even animals know to protect their mates and their offspring." He scowled at the memory of his disraceful and disloyal father. "I couldn't find it in me to share something so intimate with any woman... until you woke up one morning in my bed as a twenty-year-old."

"Pinoko is sho happy to be the one." Smiling contentedly, Pinoko ran a gentle hand along the base of his neck. "Pinoko thinks Doctor dishappointed many beautiful women!"

"I don't care if I did," Black Jack breathed against her mouth, then they shared another mind-numbing kiss. It became so hot, that in the haze of desire Black Jack noted that Pinoko's legs had spread and their groins were rubbing together softly.

He pulled back quickly.

"Why did you stop?" Pinoko huffed, looking at him with _sex_. There was nothing little-girlish about her now, anymore. Legs spread, face flushed, green eyes smoldering in lust. She reached for him and it took every ounce of his will- to remind himself that he _loved_ Pinoko, dammit, and wouldn't take advantage of her- to resist.

"Tomorrow," he swore, voice drenched in desire, "I'll teach you... I'll show you... and we can be together in ways that leave us trembling in pleasure. Wait till tomorrow, baby..."

"But, what do I do with this _feeling_?" And, Pinoko sounded more woman than any woman Black Jack ever met, her low voice sounded like it was coming from a deeply sacred place within her, like from the _womb_. It scared Black Jack a little. Pinoko had always been highly prone to emotional fits and passions, and because she'd had a child's body it used to come off as tantrums. But, this. This matched the Pinoko he always knew, except now as an adult she was so much more powerful.

"Please, baby," she beseeched, her trembling fingers started exploring between her own open thighs.

And, by Buddha's honorable name, there was the cincher. There was no doubt left in Black Jack as what he should do.

"You'll tell me when to stop, Pinoko. Swear you will. Now."

"I swear," she breathed.

Black Jack leaned down again and whispered, "I love you," before kissing Pinoko's mouth searingly, then moving to her neck as she gasped and moaned. He moved to her throat then down to her chest. He kept the negligé on, but moved down to where her thighs parted. He kissed the inside of her legs as they spread, her pelvis, pressed ravenous kisses to the dip below her knee. Pinoko whimpered, trembling now in desire. Black Jack pushed up the negligé a little, exposing her tummy, glancing up at her with smoldering eyes, and dropped desperate little kisses on her naked stomach, and she buried her fingers softly in his hair.

Then, slowly, torturously, he moved his delicate mouth down... down to her cute little underwear, which was already damp and drenched in sex and he, more aroused than ever in his whole life, he kissed her _there_ and Pinoko moaned low and long and threw her head back. Black Jack chuckled and blew softly, kissed and kissed over the material until he tasted her most intimate secret, then curled his fingers around the panties' band and began slowly and softly to pull them down.

But, he halted. "Promise you're not holding back from stopping me..."

"No... don't stop, _please_, Doctor... I love you, I've never felt so close to you..."

"Listen to me carefully," Black Jack's voice was hoarse, "you're going to feel like you're climbing a feeling, a pleasure. You'll reach the top and you'll lose yourself for an instant. You'll lose control, and moan, scream, cry with how good it feels, so don't be frightened, that's what's supposed to happen." He ghosted another kiss on her thigh. "Relax, darling, I love you so much, my gift from heaven."

Tears of joy were falling down Pinoko's cheek, and Black Jack's heart felt like it would burst, he never thought he'd know such intimacy in his cursed lifetime.

"I love you, Kuro'o," she whispered.

"All ready?"

Pinoko nodded, combing his hair with her fingers.

Black Jack pulled off her panties and beheld her little spider-flower. Driven by desire, he pressed his mouth to it, to _her_, to Pinoko, and dragged his tongue all the way from her soaking wet slit to her clitorus.

Pinoko cried out in a harsh, ragged cry, straight from the throat, and made the doctor's member twitch and emit pre-ejaculation fluid, made him groan in pleasure, grip her thighs and start to full-on eat her out, hips unwillingly rocking against the mattress in frenetic need.

_This was h__is_. Pinoko was giving it to him. It was bound to bring him unyielding pleasure... bound to do _good_ by him... bound, fate-willing, to give him his children. His cock ached, it craved attention, but he ignored it and focused on this mysterious little life-conduit, hot and wet for his sake, the female sex that he'd seen hundreds of times but never loved and wished to worship like now.

It's needless to say that because Dr. Black Jack's whole life revolved around his reverence for the human body and human life, and because Pinoko was so raw and beautiful in her innocence and unwavering love for him, that their chemistry and their sex was arduous, fecund, _real_, and sure enough, though they weren't even having intercourse during this first encounter, they both climaxed like this, at roughly the same moment, Pinoko crying out, panting and mewling at her beloved doctor tasting her most secret place, and Black Jack out of the sheer passion of the whole act and his frottage against the mattress hearing Pinoko crying his name.

By the time they calmed, his head resting on her tummy, his arms around her, Pinoko sobbed a little, sweaty and shaking... "I didn't know... I never knew... it would be so beautiful..."

Black Jack swallowed, controlling his hoarse breathing. He kissed her naked skin. "How are you, Pinoko?"

Pinoko whimpered, stroking his hair, sighing contentedly. "...'M sho shleepy, Doctor. I... it's like... Pinoko can't move... I feel perfect."

Black Jack forced himself up and slid his hand up to her heartbeat. It was pounding, still, but it was growing slower and even.

"Did it feel just as good for you, my love?" Pinoko asked innocently, trying hard to keep her eyes open.

Black Jack kissed her hand. "Yes."

"Was that sex?"

"The beginning of it."

Pinoko blinked herself awake, grinning, and said excitedly, "Only the beginning!? ¡Acchon Burike! Hurry, Doctor, let's continue till the end!" as she unabashedly wrapped arms around his neck.

"No," insisted Black Jack, grinning in spite of himself. "That's enough for now. We're overhexhausted, and we need rest. You, especially."

Pinoko pouted but her tired eyes were sliding closed.

"OK, OK... One last kiss?"

"You sure? It'll taste salty-sweet."

"That's OK." Pinoko beckoned to Black Jack and he leaned down and kissed her lips. She whimpered. "Mm, that's the evidence of my love for you... beneath the taste of your burning kiss."

"Hey, where did you learn to talk all sexy? I never exposed Pinoko-chan to things like that," Black Jack softly tickled her skin and she giggled the lovable way he always remembered her to.

"I don't know, maybe from Vogue-Japan... which Doctor doesn't want delivered to the house anymore."

"Not a chance. Now, sleep. I'm going to take a bath." He kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams, my love."

"Waah, Pinoko doesn't want to fall asleep alone!"

"Then wait up for me. I know you'll fall asleep, though."

"I won't." Pinoko crossed her arms in determination, holding back a yawn. "I'll be very awake, just you wait!"

A half-hour later, Black Jack came out of the bath and Pinoko was sound asleep. He smiled, got carefully into bed next to her and before drifting off into the sleep of gods, thanked a magic genie somewhere for granting a wish made by an extraordinary girl.

* * *

**to be continued in iv**

*Because everyone knows Pinoko-chan honeymoons in five-star Paris hotels, reads Vogue-Japan and flaunts LV luggage.

* THERE IS A PART IV! More romance, sex, fluff, Paris, and even some peerless medical drama


	4. Little Star

**disclaimer:** Tezuka-san rules

**author's note:** hey nicki minaj, it's pinoko friday! ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

* * *

_"I don't expect you to get it."  
_

_"Poor Doctor, always all alone, nobody likes you. Shee that shtar shining on its own far away from the others? That's you, Doctor! And the teeny-weeny shtar shining next to it is Pinoko!"_

_~From **Black Jack** by Osamu Tezuka, Episode #186: "Star, Magnitude Six"_

* * *

Part IV: Little Star

"Wake up, my darling. Wake up, Doctor." Kiss, kiss. "Your morning tea is on the way."

Black Jack was used to all that except the "darling" part, and blissfully he remembered he was now married to Pinoko.

"I'm up, Pinoko-chan." He sighed, rubbed his eyes then opened them to see his beautiful wife leaning over him, green eyes big and happy. "What do you mean, did you order room-service?"

"Pinoko did!"

"Huh, I can imagine the fortune you'll have me spend on this honeymoon." Black Jack sat up.

He kissed her hair and they whispered little "how-are-you's" and things, before the doctor went to brush his teeth. By the time he came back, two bellhops were wheeling in about ten different trays of food and a whole box full of teas and coffees.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded.

"Pino- I didn't know what Doctor would like, so I ordered him different options!" Pinoko grinned guiltily.

Black Jack glared once at the bellhops as though it was their fault listening to the whims of a spoiled little girl, and back to Pinoko.

"This is absurd, and a total waste of food. Pick one thing for you, and send it all back. I'll just have tea and a croissant." He translated to the bellhops while Pinoko moaned in agony.

"No, Doctor! Everything looks so good, and Pinoko's never had French food!"

"Exactly, it'll give you a belly-ache if you eat even more than one thing. Have the French-toast, light on the syrup, and a tea. Here you go, right here they have 'Gyokuro - Japanese green tea.' Probably fake, but it'll do."

"Doctor is _cruel_," whined Pinoko, gazing wistfully at a chocolate eclair.

"Do you want to be in the bathroom with a belly-ache your first day in Paris?" Black Jack poured himself his tea.

Pinoko sniffed despondently and shook her head. She pointed to the French toast.

The bellhops left and Black Jack cheered Pinoko up with promises of Paris and surprises.

"Would Doctor maybe... get a Cartier piece for me?"

"One piece." And Pinoko showered him with kisses and praises.

They had their breakfast on the balcony, Pinoko swearing she'd learn how to make French toast so they could have it every day back home. She allowed Black Jack all the sulkiness he wished, anticipating what a wonderful honeymoon this would be and admiring the beautiful Parisian streets below.

Then memories of the night before crept through her, the most pleasant feelings ran through her body. She blushed pink and sipped her tea, remembering with great fondness the forbidden intimacy Doctor and she shared. She closed her eyes, remembering the spectacular details and the deliciousness of every new sensation, remembering the feel of him against her, kissing her breathlessly, kissing his way down her body until...

Shivering, she came back to reality and opened her eyes to see Black Jack with that patch of white hair occulting his eyes, lost in reverie as well, lighting a cigarette.

"Can I have one?" she asked.

Black Jack smoothly recovered out of his fantasy.

"I thought you said cigarettes were disgusting."

"I bought a pack of filtered ones recently and I actually like them!"

Black Jack snorted and pulled another cigarette out of his silver case. But instead of handing it to her, he held onto it and passed the one he'd been smoking, with a warning, "hand-rolled ones are stronger, don't inhale too deeply."

Blissfuly, Pinoko placed the cigarette between her lips and took a very light drag. The doctor was right, it was very strong. She managed to exhale without coughing but it was shocking to her lungs.

Still. It tasted delicious, especially because it had come from between Black Jack's lips. Where Pinoko also wished to be. Again.

"You like it?"

Pinoko took another drag and nodded, tipping back in her chair and gazing up at the azure Paris morning-sky.

"Oh, Doctor, when can we have sex?" Pinoko finally said, exhaling smoke from her nose.

"Whenever you want, my darling," Black Jack murmured. "But you'll need to stay in bed for a long while after the first few times because you'll be sore."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight. But you know..." Black Jack exhaled a rich cloud of smoke and looked smolderingly at Pinoko through his bangs, "if you want to badly, I'll gladly... kiss you, again... the way I did last night."

And Pinoko fluttered her lashes just so, like she'd been practicing in the mirror doing for a long time, and set her gaze on her doctor.

"Can I... kiss you like that?"

Black Jack exhaled a slow, thin whisp of smoke.

"If you want to."

"Well..." Pinoko averted her eyes, smiling coyly, "what do _you_ want?"

"To see you shaking in pleasure."

Pinoko dragged on her cigarette.

"That's whenever I'm in your arms," she said. "Will you help me make you feel good, like you did to me?"

Black Jack smiled lightly.

"You're getting better at dropping the formalities and honorifics, I like it. Come here."

Pinoko slunk over and into Black Jack's arms and he kissed her, gently at first, teasingly and affectionately, until Pinoko went mad with desire and the embrace grew ardent. Groaning, not breaking their kiss, he gathered her in his arms and took her inside and they got in bed together.

And again, a mutual orgasm came quick for them both, still somewhat-clothed but driven by kissing and rubbing their groins together in dry sex, and Pinoko loved it just as much as last night's orgasm for all its closeness, for all that she was now holding Doctor and he held her, whimpering her name into her shoulder as she moaned out again and again in ecstasy, legs open and around his hips, frotting up against the pelvis grinding down against her, feeling that stiff male-organ of Black Jack's she still hadn't explored yet.

As they clung together, panting and kissing, Pinoko felt hot, wet, sticky liquid seeping through both their clothing by the groin and remembered what Doctor had said about men.

"Did you..." Black Jack struggled to catch his breath, dropping a kiss onto her neck, "are you sure you reached the top... like last night?"

"Yes," whispered Pinoko into his hair, holding him close. "You too? I feel the wet..."

"I'm sorry." Black Jack made to get up and off her but she whimpered, "no, please, Doctor," and beckoned that he lay in her arms again.

He did, and pressed kisses to her. Pinoko felt an overwhelming emotion in her chest and realized she was going to cry. Tears leaked down her cheeks until she started sobbing, tightening her embrace around Black Jack and burying her face against the crook of his neck.

"Acchon Burike, Doctor," she sobbed, "I just love you so much... I never dweamed we could be so close..."

"I love you too," kiss, kiss, "I only ever loved my mother this much..."

Pinoko smiled sunshine through her tears and reveled in that feeling all women get when they hold the man they love against their breast.

"Cruel Doctor! Mean Doctor. All the times you scared me, trying to make me think you didn't care!" She scratched his scalp.

"I was afraid to hurt you," admitted Black Jack.

"Remember when you sent me to be adopted by a strange couple?"

"I thought I was dying of peritonitis. I wanted you to be safe."

"Then once you went away to the snowy mountains, and hurt my feelings, and I followed you all by myself on the train..." Pinoko pouted.

"I was running from the police and if they caught you by my side they'd take you from me," insisted Black Jack.

"You also left me alone in that storm as the house blew away!"

"I knew you could handle it. The girl was dying of an ectopic pregnancy."

"Left me to cure a woman with pulse-less disease, and refused to come home..."

"...Quarantining myself from cholera, so _Pinoko-chan_ wouldn't get it."

Pinoko smiled, shaking her head. "And does Doctor remember how many countless times I was kidnapped and held as ransom?"

Black Jack stroked back her bangs.

"Because they always knew I would do anything to keep you from harm."

Pinoko kissed his lips. "Doctor is tough to live wif. But I imagine Pinoko is too, huh?"

Black Jack sighed, long and deep, and Pinoko laughed. He laid his head back against her chest.

They lay together for a while, dozed. Pinoko softly carded fingers through his hair. Hummed softly. The morning wore on lazily, the spring sun peeking through the veranda. The jet-lag still taking its toll.

Until they began kissing again and Pinoko whispered, "please... I want to give you... that pleasure."

Black Jack nodded. He gently turned them over so Pinoko lay on top and she bestowed on him kisses, kisses everywhere. Black Jack tried to relax. He was so unused to affection. He was still so self-conscious. His body tensed. It was one thing to bestow love onto Pinoko, bring her affection, bring her pleasure. It was another thing to receive it.

What eased the experience and warmed his heart was Pinoko's enthusiastic clumsiness. No force on earth had ever taught her the ways of love, she was driven purely by sincerity and instinct, and what she'd learned from him the night before. She wasn't desperate. She wasn't too frightened, either. She was pouring her heart out in kisses and caresses, the evidence in her little mewls of satisfaction. Black Jack tilted his head back at her bequest, giving her the exposure she wished for to his neck. He gave in to a little groan.

Pinoko pulled back a little and gazed down hesitantly at him. She was still young in so many ways.

"Help me?" she whispered.

Black Jack gulped and dragged off his underwear. Pinoko shifted herself then stared down at his erection, and blushed ten shades of red.

"Oh!" she gasped. She fluttered her eyes in modesty, biting her lip.

"You don't have to do this now," assured Black Jack. "We have the rest of our lives."

Pinoko shook her head. "Nah, we're always getting into danger, there's no time to lose!"

Black Jack allowed himself the indulgent laugh.

"OK, princess. Be gentle, keep your lips over your teeth at all times. It'll taste bitter, stop if you don't like it. Just little by little, be slow, and stop whenever it feels like you may choke. I won't be upset."

Pinoko smiled slyly.

Black Jack became serious. "Pinoko: I'll know when I'm going to climax so when I say so, pull away. Promise me."

Pinoko nodded. "I promise. Will it feel as good as when you did it to me?"

"As long as you don't bite, yes." Black Jack tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

Pinoko fell forward and kissed him passionately. Black Jack gasped but soon kissed her right back.

He forgot about his self-consciousness as she writhed and shimmied her way lower and lower against his chest, pressing sweet kisses on every scar- scars from being sewn back together in pieces from his childhood accident, then from adulthood, being shot, stabbed, whipped, all the things he'd been put through living the dangerous life he lived. He was shocked at the expressions on Pinoko's face. He noticed how loving she was.

"Thank you... thank you..." she breathed, lips skimming his skin of so many textures, soft, scarred, rough, burned...

She murmured some things Black Jack couldn't believe she would. Before he made assumptions, thinking he may have heard wrong, he asked her:

"What's that, honey?"

Pinoko looked up at him, flushed and self-conscious. "I was saying thank you to... two people... who brought me the happiness of my whole life."

Black Jack felt his throat tighten.

"Dr. Honma," Pinoko continued, "saved your life, didn't he? He must be in heaven... with your mother. I have both of them to thank... so very much."

Black Jack stroked her cheek gently.

"Don't cry, Doctor." Pinoko leaned forward and kissed away a stubborn tear of her husband's.

"If you knew how much I loved you..." Black Jack pressed his lips persistently against her cheek, screwing up his eyes so as to weep no more, blessing the memory of his mother and thanking whichever god sent him a little star from the heavens in the form of a cystoma.

Pinoko smiled and accepted more of his kisses and sweet-nothing's.

"Let me show you how much _I_ love you!" she insisted, pulling back again and winking suggestively. She began again her little routine of worship till she got Black Jack sexy again. Down along his neck and chest, and his forearms and his fingertips, and then the dip of his belly, where there were several scars from his self-performed operations (peritonitis, worms from Australia, etc.) until she reached his mystery.

"Tell Pi- tell me if I hurt you," whispered Pinoko.

Black Jack nodded, fingers stroking her jaw assuringly. His eyes were soft and sexy, his mouth slightly open, breathing a bit labored, and it made Pinoko feel all the more encouraged.

She held to his hips for support, licked her lips, then slipped her mouth along the shaft of his erection. Noting the delicate foreskin, noting the musky scent, the salty-sweet taste. It was a _hard_ thing, harder than any organ of hers could ever become! But it was still flesh and blood, not bone, but it was big, and for one flash of an instant Pinoko wondered how on earth it could fit inside her, but then she focused on kissing it more and more, growing to like its uniqueness and the fact that it grew so big just for her. Remembering to keep her teeth away, she grinned. Black Jack was making involuntarily little groans, hips softly swaying. Then she became experimental and sucked the head of it into her mouth, and was accosted with a salty bitter taste she didn't like until her tongue recovered from the tingly shock. Then she found her mouth moving of its own accord, tasting and sucking, because something about this felt right, his taste and scent were so good, she wanted more of him. Black Jack threw his head back, making a desperate sighing sound, his fingers shakily combing her hair.

Spreading her legs, because now her arousal was aching more and more, her panties getting damp, her excitement building, Pinoko brought him further into her mouth, until the head hit her throat and she remembered what he'd said about choking. She gently gripped the base of the erection and pulled her wet mouth slowly back, and Black Jack _moaned_, yes, moaned the way she'd never imagine him to, in the most masculine way ever, and that was the sign. Ah. So, that's what felt good.

Shee-uno aramanchu.

She flicked her eyes up to his and tried it again. And did it again. Up and down, in and out, smiling through her occupied mouth because her Doctor was now reduced to pure raw sex, eyes unfocused, breathing ragged, flushed lips parted, beneath her mouth and before her eyes, and the ache between her legs throbbed in excitement and she ground into the mattress while giving him head.

"P- Pin... Pinoko. Pinoko, stop!"

¡ACCHON BURIKE!

Reluctantly, sobbing in protest, she pulled away. But Dr. Black Jack was sucking on two of his fingers and beckoning her with his eyes.

"Come here," he breathed. Pinoko could never refuse. She slunk forward, curious, heavy-heady with arousal, and then those fingers from Black Jack's mouth found their way between her legs inside her panties and he grinned triumphantly while her world lit on fire.

"OH," her vision quaked and her senses abandoned her, as everything in the whole universe became _those_ _fingers_ suddenly _right_ _there_ and where she had been supporting herself by the arms that all failed because muscle by muscle she lost control and collapsed forward against him and cried base cries of need and pleasure.

"Well, aren't you still my naughty little girl," Black Jack breathed hotly into her ear, stroking her erect clitorus, "to be so natural an expert at pleasuring a man."

"Yes... Pinoko is naughty... and she's yours," Pinoko grinned in her blind state of pleasure and kissed whatever skin of his she could, "and you like it... Aaahh... Let me touch Doctor too, please!"

"Yes..."

And Pinoko's hand wrapped around his cock and stroked as he gasped, raggedly, and together they abandoned themselves to climax, coming hard, harder than ever, for one another, again. Pinoko was able to look down this time and see Black Jack's ejaculation and think, again, what mind-blowing pleasure would come from having him inside her, pulsing like that, inside her, as her muscles clenched and clenched, tight, hard, like they were now, dampening his talented fingers, dampening her to the core, leaving her soaked within but not nearly as soaked as she knew she could be... from him... from his come drenching her... They kissed, and the kiss burned with desire... with gratitude and relief... with affection, and the prospect of further intimacy.

* * *

It was just dusk at the Pont Neuf. The street lights were low and muted, and the little boats twinkled along the Seine. The Linden trees, with their signature highlighter-green spring-leaves, swayed on the light breeze and perfumed the air with honey. On one side was Notre Dame cathedral and the other the Eiffel Tower, and the buzz of people, tourists, vendors, etc. was, at the moment, calming. It seemed to Pinoko that Parisians were far more open and curious than Tokyoites, which could be good but was a bit startling. Many of them seemed fascinated with Asia, suffering, perhaps, from Orientalism, and seemed eager to show off to her and the Doctor how much they knew about Japan, which turned out not to be very much, or very inaccurate. Didn't people know: samurai's no longer existed, geisha's weren't prostitutes, sushi was a delicacy and not an everyday dish, and not all Japanese tourists took hundreds of pictures with Nokia cameras!

Still, Pinoko thought, she supposed she had some prejudices too about Paris, especially because she thought everyone would be caucasian, but it turned out Paris was a very multi-ethnic place, with many more African and Middle Eastern immigrants than she ever imagined (far more than their mono-racial Japan), who didn't take kindly to ignorant girls like her staring. Other than that, and perhaps the prejudice that Pinoko thought some people in western Europe still rode in horse-and-carriages (it was a nice surprise seeing the familiar Honda's and Mitsubishi's), Paris was everything Pinoko dreamed it would be. It was so beautiful, and had so many wonderful flavors, blending the modern and the old-world so seamlessly. It was very romantic, and artistic and pictureseque, and the food (especially the pastries) were exquisite. The vegetation wasn't so very different than Japan, they were pretty much equilateral cities, but something about the West was just so much more embellished and floral than the East, the overall design of things more swirly than straight, more elaborate than simple and nature-based. Doctor had said this style of designing and thinking had pinnacled during a period in the West, particularly France, called the Baroque period. "Everything was fancy, the architecture, fashion, literature, etc. some suppose to occult the extreme social injustice of the time and present an illusion that life was beautiful when it wasn't," he'd said. Yes, France had been a kingdom- not empire- with kings and queens and an intertwining of government with the Christian religion, for many years until violent radical revolution and the birth of Western democracy. Traces of all that could be found in Paris, including its Nazi occupation during the horror that was World War II, so while it was very romantic it was also a dark city. Pinoko wondered if Parisians were a little ignorant about Japan because they still held resentment about WWII. Doctor told her not to be silly, they were ignorant because they were "notoriously arrogant."

"What was it like the first time you came to Paris, Doctor?"

Black Jack breathed deep.

"That's a sad story."

"That's OK, Pinoko can handle sad."

"I was about twenty, and I was still a medical student," he said. "I stayed in a poor area, I didn't have a lot of money then. The lock to my hotel bedroom was broken. It was near Pigalle, the red light district. That's where... Do you remember what I taught you about geisha's? Geisha's are mostly well-cared-for; they're artists and entertainers, and expected to flirt with clients, presenting only an illusion of a sexual fantasy. The type of people in Pigalle- who're mostly girls and women, but there are boys and men too- are not like that. They're prostitutes, which means they actually have sex with clients, however the client wants. That's the entertainment."

Pinoko gasped.

Black Jack nodded. "It's sad, most of them are forced into it, because they're poor or their lives are threatened. Anyway, I was in Paris for a conference. But I remember one girl, a prostitute. She was young, probably only thirteen or fourteen, Arab, and she found out I was studying medicine and she lurked around the front of my hotel waiting for me to address her. Finally, I told her I wasn't interested, to please leave me alone but she begged me to give her medicine for a kidney infection, that she would... give me very good sex, as much as I wanted, if I would help her. I took pity on her. I ran tests and saw that the kidney infection was bad. She also had some diseases contracted from having promiscuous sex. Those I gave her antibiotics for, but the kidney infection needed surgery. I didn't have my license yet and no hospital would allow me to operate, so I gave her whatever money I could from savings and instructions on how to apply for surgery. I insisted she get out of the hateful business, but she said she couldn't. She and her two siblings didn't have any family, and had been brought from Algeria to Paris by a trafficker. Looking back, I can't imagine that she was able to save herself, and hide the money from the pimp- that's the man she worked for, who traded her off to people for money. But, I couldn't just do nothing." Black Jack sighed. "The next time I came back, a few years later, with my license, I asked all around for her and nobody knew where she or her siblings had gone, most people didn't even remember her."

Pinoko held Black Jack's hand a little more tightly. "Pinoko hopes she got better and was able to escape. Doctor did everything he could!"

"You always say that," Black Jack said.

"Because it's true."

"If you say so." Black Jack smiled and kissed her hand.

"Can Doctor... Can you go to that area this time and see what he can do for the poor girls?"

"Hm? No. I don't have the money."

"Wha-!?" Pinoko gaped at him. "What do you mean?"

"This luxury-honeymoon costs a fortune," insisted Black Jack, a barely-there smile twitching the corner of his lips. "And didn't my wife ask for a Cartier piece? Philanthropy isn't in my budget."

"But... but! But Doctor has a lot of money!"

"Now you sound like the kidnappers."

"...Acchon Burike. Well... well... What if Pinoko... ah." Pinoko struggled to say what she really didn't want, "what if I donate my Cartier gift? Would Doctor match the price of the gift to a donation to someone who needs help?"

Black Jack smiled and whispered in her ear.

"Good girl. Yes."

"Argh! You were supposed to say you'd give it to me anyway, selfish!" Pinoko pouted.

"That would dishonor your generous intent, wouldn't it?"

Pinoko sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Let's go to dinner, come," Black Jack laughed and led her away and people around them blushed at what a beautiful, perfect (albeit somewhat odd) couple they made, very clearly in-love.

Black Jack wined and dined her in a dark, romantic little restaurant along the Champs-Élyseés, with their own private booth, ordering the best, most expensive bottle of Bordeaux and watching Pinoko charmingly turn pink with drink and delight in the low candlelight, ordering truffles and bruleés, smoking up all his cigarettes and laughing her now-adult laugh at the strange adventures he could finally tell her about, at the memories they shared, and the promises he made for their future.

Their waiter, it became obvious, was trying not to ogle the beautiful Pinoko too much, because Black Jack really didn't seem like a man he'd want to make angry. He was a young, light-haired, very charming French garçon. Black Jack brooded enough for Pinoko to notice and chide him.

"Don't be jealous," she leaned forward, "my wonderful," she kissed his cheek, "bwilliant," kiss, "genius," kiss, "sho very shexy," kiss kiss, "Doctor!"

Black Jack smiled slyly. "Oh, I'm not."

He pulled her close and ghosted a sensuous kiss onto her lips, and pulled out a little black velvet box, and Pinoko had read enough Vogue-Japan to recognize the writing on the top, the two English names...

Harry Winston.

Her mouth opened in shock.

"Doctor...?"

"Open it," he breathed.

Pinoko seemed afraid to touch the box, but she did, gently, take it in her hand and open it reverently. She inhaled sharply. The ring... the wedding ring was...

"A _sakura_!"

It was. Pink and white diamonds and a ruby encrusted meticulously together to create the signature Japanese cherry blossom, sitting magnificently on a platinum band. Custom-made.

Pinoko was speechless.

"Even with round green eyes and this pretty light-brown hair," Black Jack caressed her chin, then tapped the tip of her nose, "you're a flower of Nippon. A porcelain of the East. And the best wife a man anywhere in the world could ask for."

Tears welled again in Pinoko's eyes and she cried against her palm.

"Doctor keeps making Pinoko cry! Oh, Doc- oh, Kuro'o! I love you, thank you!"

"Try it on." Black Jack smiled.

He helped her slip it on her ring finger, where it glittered against her snow-white hand like the wedding-ring of any princess.

"It fits perfectly," Pinoko breathed.

"My wife didn't think I'd leave her diamond-less, did she?" Black Jack grinned sardonically and lit a cigarette. "See why I was trying to get you to reject the idea of a Cartier piece? I was waiting for the right moment to give this to you. Unless... you want to give back this ring and get something less than Harry Winston."

"No!" Pinoko clutched her chest as she regaled at the magnificent wedding ring. "Oh, Doctor, Pinoko could never have imagined anything like this, it's the most beautiful thing! And, how..." Pinoko gazed up to him, blushing, "how did you know I felt self-conscious about not looking Japanese?"

"I heard you yelling at the woman who fit you into the wedding gown that just because you looked European didn't mean you weren't Nihonjin... and super-kawaii."

Pinoko giggled. "I can be rude to people when I'm mad, hehe..." She stored the empty box in her alligator-purse then fluttered her eyes back to Black Jack. "Thank you for being so creative, my love, it's captured my heart."

"She was the rude one," insisted Black Jack, dragging his cigarette. "Besides, you know how so many women back home get jealous because they've got it in their heads that it's better to be caucasian. They'll be jealous of you, darling, but just remember my sakura."

"I'll have it on every day to remember!"

Black Jack coughed a little smoke.

"No, you won't. That ring is the most valuable thing even _I_ have ever come into dealings with, and it's going in a safe at home, where you can take it out for special occasions. I've got it insured, but I won't have you taking chances. Swear it, Pinoko."

Pinoko sulked a little, looking down again at its beauty.

"Grocery shopping can be a special occasion to some," she argued.

Black Jack almost smiled but managed to keep a stony face.

Pinoko huffed. "OK, OK! I swear."

Black Jack kissed her cheek. Pinoko stole his cigarette and took a drag for herself, then grinned and leaned into his affections, tipsy and still overwhelmed with happiness.

She said, "You know, I loved you from the moment I heard my sister's doctor talk about you, while I was still inside her." Pinoko returned his kisses. "I knew you would listen to me. Then I heard your voice talking, and I knew I could trust you."

"And I knew you were a whole person, in fact, my soul-mate," admitted Black Jack, "and there was no way I was going to let you die, I was willing to do anything. You fought for your life with all your might and I knew we were the same. I don't even remember how I was able to make that little body for you, I just remember pulling out every stop."

They leaned their foreheads together and promised to spend the whole night awake and together... in the closest way two people can be.

And once they were back in their hotel-room, they wouldn't stop kissing, even while he undid her dress and she his waistcoat because now finally they could go all the way in their amorous pursuits. Black Jack was persistent with her, though still sweet and gentle, but he could sense beneath her kiss that she wanted it, wanted it as soon as possible and he was more than happy to oblige. When he got Pinoko down to her underwear, he kissed her throat, down her chest, then fell to his knees and kissed her stomach, as she gripped his hair. Then he slipped off her panties, smiling again as he came face-to-face with his new favorite body part of hers and kissed her there too, but this made Pinoko wobble for all that her knees began to give out. He stopped only when it became obvious she could no longer stand, then he took her in his arms and brought her to the bed, while she kissed him desperately. He unhooked her lacy bra and removed it, gazing down at the breasts he still hadn't given full attention to yet. Pinoko gasped at the full exposure. Black Jack kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck, then finally, slid his hand up her belly to cup her breast as she shivered and moaned. He grinned and used his fingers to stiffen her nipple and Pinoko had no idea that could feel so good... that it would stimulate her between the legs as though there were some strong invisible string connecting the organs. When his mouth replaced his fingers, it was equally as blissful, feeling like when he ate her out. She moaned and arched and he smiled, switching sides and teasing with his mouth and fingers. If he continued like this, she would definitely... climax...

Then Black Jack sat up and gazed hazily down at her naked form, black-and-white hair mussed from all her pulling. His hands ran over her body- possessively and reverently, while Pinoko gazed up at him, arching. He still had his undershirt and pants on, though unzipped, erection weeping at the tip.

"Please!" Pinoko cried, hands frantically reaching for him, body bucking in anticipation. "I want you..."

Black Jack was just about to fall forward again but something in his eyes changed. He realized that if they were going to have intercourse, there'd be the signature pain and bleeding, and he thought what he needed to make Pinoko most comfortable. Lubrication and towels and gauze and anti-bacterial ointment, and hot water...

He kissed her hands. "I need to get some things. Wait for me, one moment."

Pinoko pouted and Black Jack leaned forward and kissed her forehead and promised it'd be less than a minute. He went to his kit and rummaged, then disappeared into the bathroom with it and reappeared, sure enough, a moment later with things.

Pinoko, sitting up, became a little frightened.

"W-what's all that for?" She eyed the gauze and the anti-bacterial in particular. Black Jack went and brought the hot water in a basin and Pinoko worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

He sat on the bed and spoke softly. "Despite how wonderful it is, and how much pleasure we'll feel, there's a little pain involved. Only a little," he assured as Pinoko gasped. "Remember I said you'd feel sore. It's abrasion against very sensitive skin, over and over, and because you're losing your virginity a little membrane will break and bleed from the penetration. Don't fret, I'll make it as painless as possible."

Pinoko had begun blinking back tears of fear and disappointment. Black Jack kissed them away and promised, "we can stop anytime you want."

"Will Doctor hurt too?" asked Pinoko softly.

Touched, Black Jack caressed her cheek. "I'll be a little sore."

"Pinoko is nervous," Pinoko admitted.

"Of course you are. Are you sure you want to do this tonight? I won't be mad to wait, Pinoko."

"I trust Doctor," said Pinoko, trying to smile through her apprehension and fear.

Black Jack kissed her sweetly. "I'll make it good for you. It should only hurt a little if we do it right, I'll make you ready. Stop me anytime, and trust me if I say we can't go faster or harder. That's very important."

Pinoko nodded. Black Jack gave her another sweet kiss, and it turned into a long kiss, murmuring how much he loved her, how beautiful she was, and soon she was once again putty in his hands and he heady with love and desire.

Pinoko's fingers went to the hem of his undershirt, his skin below hot against her touch.

"You're so sexy... Kuro'o. I love you, you make me feel..." Pinoko tipped her head back as Black Jack kissed her throat, "oh, you're so handsome... so smart... so incredible."

"Yeah, baby..."

She pulled his undershirt off and he, grinning, took his pants off too, leaving only his underwear, which Pinoko tugged at.

"Easy," he whispered but he took them off too.

"Kiss me," breathed Pinoko, "it feels so right."

He pulled her close and kissed her with all the ardency he felt. Her body was silk and velvet in his arms, her heartbeat a sweet tempo setting the rhythm he should take... even and purposeful, and pulsing.

Whoever this genie had been who'd given her the body she'd always been missing... was an artist. Pinoko was perfectly proportioned, with soft milky skin, and a sweet natural scent, with thick honey-brown hair... and she still had her smile, still had her bright eyes, her voice was the same, if not deeper. Black Jack would never be able to figure it out... how he was trumped by powers beyond himself. This hadn't been the first time he'd been shown-up by magic, gods, and miracles, but it was by far the most incredible, and the one he was truly beginning to be humbled by. Yes, he believed. He was willing to humble himself, to worship a chaotic force in nature that left all his genius talents for science and biology in the dust. In his arms was a miracle-child, God's own beloved daughter created out of practically nothing, as if a moonbeam had fallen from the sky. He lamented ever having called her "Pinoko," named after the doll Pinnochio, because it implied that he'd breathed life into a nothing-object, when the truth was that his Pinoko had breathed life into _him._ Imagine, the Created fulfilling the heart of its Creator. A great mystery indeed, a strong kick in the teeth, but one that Dr. Black Jack - Kuro'o Hazama - had desperately needed and was grateful for.

"Get ready... This shouldn't hurt, but stay with me. Talk to me."

He slipped a lubricated finger between her folds and eased it gently inside her virginal walls. Pinoko gasped at the unusual intrusion. She was reclining on top of him, like he'd told her to, so she could easily retreat back if she wanted to.

"Is it all right?" he breathed.

"It's all right," she assured, feeling herself adjust.

Black Jack kissed her and whispered soothingly. "Relax for me... Good."

Pinoko relaxed and responded well to his comforting. He added another digit and Pinoko gasped again in surprise, but quickly recovered and whispered, "it's OK. I'm all right."

"Good girl." Kiss.

Very gently, he rubbed his fingers back and forth, slowly, withdrawing and pushing forward, following Pinoko's body's signals, sensing her feelings and responding in kind. She was doing well, her expression of discomfort morphing into one of joy and pleasure, and her hips began swaying in time with the movement of his fingers. Black Jack leaned up and placed open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and her neck, murmuring what a good girl she was, that he loved her, that she was beautiful. He could feel his fingers getting more slippery, and her opening giving way under his touch. He stretched her a little more by scissoring and whispered little comforts when she gasped again, but she soon relaxed back into pleasure and kissed his mouth.

"Oh... Kuro'o... darling... I-I think I'm going to... for you...!"

Good. An orgasm would help ease her open further and lubricate her more.

"Go on," he urged. "Come for me, baby."

Eyes fluttering closed, she rocked in time to his pistoning fingers and then soon clenched around them and cried out desperately. Black Jack himself almost came, witnessing her fall apart under his determined ministrations, feeling the strength of her orgasm under his touch.

"I love you, Doctor... Pinoko lovesh you!"

"OK, Pinoko-chan," he breathed, easing his fingers out, collecting her in his arms while she was still lax and loose, and dragging over the lubrication, the gauze and a towel, "Doctor's going to make love to you, now. Stay with me, and keep talking." He kissed her lips. "I love you so much, my beautiful wife. Make sure you listen."

"I love you," Pinoko breathed, kissing him.

He quickly but thoroughly coated himself with lubrication. Then, gently, he situated her on his lap as he leaned up against a series of pillows.

"Thish will make our baby," whispered Pinoko, smiling against his shoulder.

"Hopefully. OK." He took her chin gently in his hand so she could look at him and he smiled at her lovesick expression. "You're so beautiful. Gently ease yourself up, like this," he guided her hips, "then slide down so I'm inside you. Slowly. Here." He gently slid his fingers inside her slit again and lined her pussy with more with lubrication, then withdrew. "Come rub yourself against me. Good. Like that, good girl... Oohh..." Black Jack was losing himself as Pinoko rubbed against his shaft, his eyes flickering upward. "Just like that, yes. Use your weight in your favor, take me in little by little, and tell me when it hurts."

"Tell me, too, if I hurt you!" Pinoko whispered, kissing him. "We're both virgins, we're both tender..."

Black Jack smiled. "OK."

Gently taking hold of his cock, Pinoko rubbed herself against it, then, slowly and purposefully, eased herself upon the head and fed it to herself while slipping down on it as much as felt comfortable, and then threw her arms around his neck to tremble. Black Jack held her, rubbing soothing circles along her hips and thighs, murmuring his love's passion, kissing her cheek with unabashed adoration, wishing to ease the fear.

"I'm OK..." Pinoko keened a little and pulled back, and Black Jack brought his arms around her waist and kissed her lips. His hands ran up her back to ease the tension there and in her shoulders, running soothingly along her skin and muscles. This helped, she relaxed and moaned into his kiss, then eased herself further down, wincing slightly, but then she recovering quickly, promising, "it doesn't hurt, it's OK, it's just... big."

"Kiss me, Pinoko, I love you. Come here." Black Jack kissed her passionately, realizing this method was most effective. It worked, she melted under his kissing and slid down further, almost fully impaled, and they both groaned.

Black Jack kept one hand in her hair, and the other on the small of her back, rubbing comfortingly, coaxing her. He was murmuring, "you're gorgeous, princess, oh, I love you," to keep Pinoko distracted, kissing and kissing, making her hot, "I'm going to bring you so much pleasure, we'll make love all the time, whenever you want, and I swear I'll to spoil you rotten."

"Pinoko will remember Doctor's words," Pinoko breathed, grinning, resting her forehead against his, and with one last thurst, brought him completely inside.

Both threw their heads back, in shock, in ecstasy, in a little bit of pain, then Pinoko collapsed against his shoulder and he held her, kissing whatever skin he could, stroking locks of damp chestnut hair, and neither needed to say anything else. Pinoko pulled back, she needed no more instruction. Her heart and her body knew exactly what to do, and Black Jack's golden eyes told her of his pleasure. Therefore, of her own volition, blissfully, blushing, she rolled her gentle hips and knew heaven, that heaviness of his filling her, stretching her. Feeling him react, how his eyes smoldered and his hands caressed her skin, his manhood sliding back and forth inside her, she, pushing back his damp hair and bestowing on his lips a pleasure-braised kiss, began moving. And who remembered pain? Never pain, only bliss. She spread her legs more and he pulled her closer and he bucked slowly, but just hard enough, up into her that she realized _here_ was the missing piece, here was the balm to the burning inside of her core, to the ache she'd been feeling since acquiring this full-grown body, and somewhere in her heart she realized it was balm against... the terrible trauma of eighteen years... but she couldn't think then, no, only feel her Dr. Black Jack, her husband forever, mark her purest part as his own, as if she already wasn't his. And at that moment they both lost their wits and senses, because this first intercourse was honestly too much for such a traumatized pair, two people who had seen too much of the world for their own good, who were broken, ripped, shred to pieces in every way humans could be but had somehow found themselves sewn back together and made to endure, finding one another by the hand of Fate... and, so, their orgasm was sharp and cruel, not gentle, as waves of sensation overwhelmed them: pleasure, pain, shock and helplessness... total abandonment to numb bliss and raw ecstasy, lonely in darkness and yet achieved only together... only together. Only they could understand, and speak so much in this act without uttering a word, like the night years ago Pinoko had yelled just from her mind to be rescued and the Doctor had heard her in his brain and obeyed, and created her.

Blind, shaking beyond control, nauseous, and terrified for the emotional stability of Pinoko, Black Jack felt around for the gauze and helped his cold-fleshed sweat-sleek wife up off him, though she whined and clung.

"C-come on, little one," he urged, breathing beginning to even.

He shifted so that he could slide himself out. They both winced, and without skipping a beat he pressed the gauze against her to staunch the dripping, semen and blood.

"Good girl," he whispered, desperate to bring them back from oblivion. He cupped Pinoko's cheek in his hand and it was drenched with tears. He kissed them all away, and she sobbed and tried to speak.

"Don't be scared," he murmured soothingly.

Pinoko didn't know if she was scared, or what she was feeling at all. She knew she could never live... live without... her husband... Doctor... Daddy... _God_... whosever's arms these were she was in. Her ego raged against it, furious to find no way out of such ultimate dependency. It was justified, for love shouldn't exist like hers and Black Jack's... people like her and Black Jack shouldn't, by nature's design, exist at all. A man made of stitched up of shredded limbs and organs and a woman gleaned from the body of another because the man was lonely, they were a twisted, perverse brand of Adam and Eve and shouldn't that mean their end would be as disasterous?

Reading her thoughts, Black Jack kissed her cheek and whispered, "we're going to be OK, Pinoko-chan. We're going to be together."

He lay her down upon the towel as she sobbed and tried reassuring that she didn't hate him, that she was just feeling too many things all at once, that she was sorry, and Black Jack ordered that she never say sorry for feeling things.

He dipped a hand-towel in the hot water and sponged her body, little by little, cleaning himself as well.

This helped tremendously. Pinoko calmed and turning to him, touching his skin, she asked, "am I pwegnant, now?"

Black Jack smiled in relief.

"Have you been tracking your menstrual cycle, like I taught you?" he asked. "And taking your temperature with the super-thermometer?"

Pinoko nodded, becoming lulled by his ministrations.

"Tell me what you discovered," said Black Jack.

"The bleeding lasts about two or three days." Pinoko smiled contentedly at her husband's soft caresses. "And... umm. Oh, my temperature rises about sixteen days after the bleeding starts and stays like that! Then it dips down a few days before the bleeding begins."

"Very good, you have a healthy 28-day cycle," said Black Jack. He did the calculations. "You probably ovulate around day 13 or 14, and your fertile stage ends when your temperature rises. Did you take it this morning?"

"Yes. But, it's been going up and down in the last few days, that's not normal!"

Black Jack stroked her hair back. "That's because of the traveling, your circadian rhythm is off-balance. When was your last period?"

"Sixteen days ago." Pinoko scrunched her nose. "Or, seventeen, since we're behind from the time-difference."

"You may still be in the fertile stage, Pinoko!"

Pinoko grinned and kissed his hand. "Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

"Let's give it a chance to be made," Black Jack said, grinning.

"I love Doctor and his brilliant mind so much," Pinoko lovingly reached for him, and for one instant she looked like his beautiful mother.

"Are you in pain, my Pinoko?"

Pinoko winced and admitted, "just a little, but the towel is nice. Please don't put any anti-bacterial cream inside me, I don't want it to interfere with the baby-making!"

Black Jack nodded and caressed her cheek. He turned off the light and fell into her beckoning arms, where she held him to her and didn't chide him for his silent tears, only whispered love and comfort, like any wife naturally knows to...

They dozed, then woke shortly after and took turns taking their baths until they were able to cuddle up together all clean again.

Black Jack was just about to lull into a very beautiful sleep when Pinoko whispered, "Doctor? How do you pray to Allah?" and then he opened one eye in perplexity.

"What?"

"Well... Pinoko thinks Allah sent the genie. And I want to thank Him."

Black Jack sighed. "I don't know how. Anytime I saw a Muslim praying I was usually working on saving his life, not paying attention."

Pinoko pouted. "Well, I want to learn to pray to someone, to any of the gods that helped Pinoko and Doctor."

"I'm afraid I can't help you, my darlng. It's been so long since I've prayed to anyone..."

"Maybe Doctor should try more," said Pinoko quietly. Her eyes were stars in the dark, and Black Jack entangled their fingers together.

"Maybe I should," he breathed. "Which other gods helped?"

"Hm, let's see. Buddha!"

"I've been trumped by His wisdom before... several times." Black Jack grinned.

"Then... Vamana! Oh, and Rama."

"Those are new ones." Black Jack cocked his head. "Rama's blue and carries a bow, right? And suffers when He must live separated from His wife, Sita. And Vamana is the dwarf."

"Yes! Then, the Virgin Mary and her Child Jesus." Pinoko snuggled closer to Black Jack, and he held her tenderly.

"Ah, I was trumped majorly by them once. Now twice, damn it."

Pinoko jogged her memory. "Oh! Yes! In El Salvador, solving Kenpei's mystery! And Padre Fathna couldn't explain the seamless surgery he'd performed, owing it all to the precise direction of Mary! Pinoko remembers. Doctor was so upset."

"I'm _still_ upset," Black Jack said bitterly. "But, I suppose I'll get over it, in my gratitude to Them. Anyone else?"

"No. Unless there were more Pinoko doesn't know about!"

"Hm, well, I suppose I got the idea to glean you from a rib and make you human because of the Genesis story. Arigatou, Yawheh."

Pinoko smiled. "It's funny, Doctor, there are so many gods all depending on the people! Do you think they may just be different versions of the same One?"

Black Jack gazed off into space for a moment. "That's probably right. There's One I've devoted my whole life to fighting against. That force. That truth. The uncontrollable chaotic energy."

Pinoko frowned.

"It's exhausting fighting," continued Black Jack enigmatically. "But I always thought there was nothing to be grateful for, no one to worship. Just persistence. And 'love,' but I truly believed I wasn't fit for it. Until a little girl came along."

He beamed down at Pinoko, who had shed a tear.

"She's making a believer out of that heathen outlaw, Dr. Black Jack." He tucked back a piece of her hair. "Bringing out the man beneath the scars and wounds."

"Maybe there were times Doctor was the man, and the world was the heathen..."

Black Jack closed wet eyes and pressed his lips to Pinoko's forehead.

"Thank you, little star."

¸.·' ¸.·' *·~-.¸-( **burakku jakku** )-,.-~*¸.·' ¸.·'

* * *

**to be continued... maybe lol**

* * *

**end notes: **

Ah, I don't know what to write for end-notes! I should make an epilogue, right? *sigh*


End file.
